Residential Electrician
How to Troubleshoot
Your Breaker Panel Breaker Panels and Breaker Boxes
When a breaker panel trips, it can be very annoying because
it often seems to do so at the worst possible time. When a circuit breaker gets
too much electricity, it is supposed to trip. When a breaker panel trips
because of too much electricity, your home's electrical system set up by Residential Electrician Perth
is safe. There are easy steps you can take to figure out what's wrong with your
circuit breakers in the breaker box. When your home loses power, the best place
to start is with the breaker box.
How to Reset Your Breaker
Find the box of breakers. Most breaker boxes are in the
basement, garage, or utility room, near the water heater, air conditioner, or
furnace. When you open the door to your breaker box, listen to make sure you
don't hear any strange sounds, like buzzing. If you do, you should call a
professional instead of continuing on your own.
Look at the diagram on the inside of the panel door to find
the circuit that needs to be reset in your home. The switches are usually numbered
and labelled according to how your home is set up.
Check each switch. When a circuit has been tripped, the
switch will be in the middle and feel a little "springy" when
touched.
After moving the switch to the OFF position, wait three
seconds before moving it back to the ON position.
If turning off the circuit breaker doesn't solve the
problem, consider the following:
Have I bought any more home appliances, like hair dryers,
microwaves, or portable heaters?
Do I have old things that need to be replaced and are
causing the electricity to jump around?
Do I have too many devices or pieces of equipment plugged
into one circuit? For example, a TV, a lot of lights, and a home entertainment
system can all cause a circuit to overload.
Should I turn off devices that I don't use often?
If you answered "no" to the questions above, you
should get in touch with a licenced electrician because there may be other
issues at play that are causing your circuit breaker to trip. Circuit breakers
can trip for many different reasons, such as a short circuit, bad wiring, or
the need for an extra electrical circuit to meet all of your home's power
needs.